Every Time it Rains
by Compulsive Bowler
Summary: Will Schuster always loved the rain; Rachel Berry always hated it. A tale of their journey together through rain and shine
1. Feel the Rain Fall

A/N: Hey this is my first Glee fic! I'm stuck on my other stories, so I thought I'd try something new. Multichapter installments. It jumps around time, but dates will be included before every change. Enjoy!

Blip. Blip. The sounds of rain softly pattering outside Will Schuster's window were peaceful; calming at that. Will always loved the rain. It seemed as if a temporary escape from the angst of his everyday life.

Rachel, on the other hand, hated the rain. Rain made her hair frizz up and wrinkled her skirt. If she went out in the rain without an umbrella, she caught a cold. Yes, Rachel hated the rain.

But as Will once said in his lesson on mash-ups, sometimes the difference between two things is what really makes them great. Of course he and Rachel were not a mash-up. There is no easy way to take the best parts of each person and simply combine them. In a relationship you have to accept all of who the person is; even the parts that you don't like.

May 23, 2011

It was just an average Monday, except it was raining. Rachel had stayed after to rehearse with Brad her newest audition cut. Brad had been long gone, and Rachel was forced to stand outside, without any protection, in the rain. As she waited for her dad to pick her up, Will came out of the building, happy as ever.

"Rachel, shouldn't you be home by now? It's awfully late," He said.

"I'm waiting for my ride. He was supposed to be here 10 minutes ago, but as you can quite clearly see, he's not!" Rachel spurted back. Her diction was clear and the anxiety rolled off her tongue like the raindrops rolled off the roof.

"Finn?" Will asked inquisitively.

"No," Rachel replied. She quickly shut her eyes, and Will couldn't tell if she was crying, or if it was just the rain. Regardless, he had hit a soft spot.

"Rachel, what happened?" he asked while soothing her by putting his right arm around her.

"I'd rather not talk about it, if that's ok Mr. Schuster," she replied in an abrupt, curt manner. She, obviously, was still tender about the subject. Will Schuster never pushed. He knew with women that if you pushed, you got pushed back. The best thing to do was to wait until she was ready to talk about it.

"Ok, well until your ride comes, would you like to sit in my car? I guarantee it's warmer in there than it is out here," he offered sweetly.

"No thank you Mr. Schuster," she replied, while brushing a clump of hair behind her right ear so as to see him more clearly, "I suppose I'll just walk home. I need the time alone to think."

"Alright Rachel, but don't get sick! I need you for rehearsal tomorrow." His words were soft and gentle, as they always were, but at the moment it seemed as if they left their student-teacher relationship at the door in favor of one between equals.

"Ok," she replied with a small smile to juxtapose her pained eyes, "I'll be careful. Goodbye, Mr. Schuster."

"Goodbye Rachel," he replied watching her hurry out into the rain. Yes, Will Schuster always loved the rain.


	2. Storm Warning

A/N: Hey thanks for reading! I know some of you are following, so don't be afraid to review! Send me your thoughts and ideas and I might just use them…

September 7, 2011

The first Glee rehearsal of the new school year was in session. Some, like Rachel, considered the rain to be a bad omen for the new season. Will said it would wash away every bad event from last year to create a cleaner, fertilized start for this year. The glee club thought it was bs, but they admired Will's optimism, so they let it go.

As always, Rachel demanded her solo. "Mr. Schuster, I have prepared Astonishing from the Broadway flop Little Women. Quite frankly I don't understand why it wasn't a success! The music is invigorating, and it's based on a classic tale of women trying to find themselves in a less-than-ideal situation. In my opinion, it really should-" he cut her off.

"Actually, before we move forward," he began with his I-have-a-lesson-plan voice, "we're going to look back on everything that we did last year. I thought it would be fun to go back over some of our favorites like "Dog Days are Over", "Born This Way", "Dancing Queen" and for my personal enjoyment, your mash-up of "Umbrella" and "Singing in the Rain."

Other than Rachel, everyone in the room seemed excited to go over some favorites. Rachel sat there, mesmerized, by everyone's excitement. _How can they all be so happy? _she silently pondered. The first few numbers went off without a hitch. Everyone gave them their all and they were sweating buckets, so they were clearly ready for the water refresher of "Umbrella". Everyone was in place when Rachel ran out. Everyone could hear her sobs and her footsteps as she darted for the auditorium door.

Will trailed after her. "Wait a minute, guys," he called back to the glee club. He must have ran for 7 minutes before he passed Rachel sitting in the window area, weeping into her arms. He looked her over for a moment. The way her hair framed her defined face was certainly striking. "Rachel, what's wrong?"

"I am not going back in there," she replied curtly.

"Rachel," he said with a stern voice, "I can't have you leaving because you want to be a diva after every rehearsal."

"Then I quit"

"What?"

"I think you heard me Mr. Schuster, if you can't deal with me, then I quit."

And he let her go, simple as that. As she ran away, he felt a slight twitching in his finger. The twitching then metastasized to his palm, and later to his whole hand. Then the same sensation spread throughout his entire torso, and finally his whole body. But by the time the strange twitching sensation persuaded his body to follow her, she was gone.


	3. Raining on the Inside

A/N: Okay so I have a legitimate excuse for the delayed update; fanfiction wouldn't let me upload any of my documents for the past week. So without ado, chapter 3!

October 12, 2011

The rain drizzled down lightly and looked like a pleasant mist spraying from the sky. Will glanced out the slightly frosted window at the spectacle and found himself in pure, utter bliss. The gentle patter was hypnotic to him and gave him a moment of peace while his 9th period Spanish class struggled on their chapter test.

Any other teacher in this situation would have thought about Thanksgiving plans or what movie they wanted to watch the following weekend. Will Schuster couldn't help but ponder Rachel Berry's revulsion of the rain. No one else Will had encountered had ever taken such a disliking to precipitation.

On that note the bell chimed and it was time for glee club. Will walked casually down the hallway, but he made sure to slow down and check up on Rachel at her locker.

"Rachel, are you going to be okay for glee today?" he asked with genuine concern.

"Yes. I would like to formally apologize for my behavior over the past couple of rehearsals. I, however, felt that Noah's comments on my sweaters were quite rude and action needed to be taken." She continued on her tirade, but Will could only focus on the way her eyebrows furrowed and quickly rose again whenever she yelled. His eye line moved down to her lips. They were a perfect rosy pink and there wasn't a crack in sight. _She has to apply a lot of chapstick for lips that smooth, _he thought before snapping back to reality.

"Mr. Schue, you're asking me if I'm going to be okay for rehearsal today, but you can barely focus on anything today. It seems sort of counterproductive to project your problems on someone else."

Will couldn't help but roll his eyes and chortle at Rachel's blunt and curt manner, but he still felt caught by how sharp and observant she was. He felt his cheeks begin to flush a humiliating shade of red, so he did the best thing he could to cover it up; he got sassy.

"You know what?" he asked haughtily, "Just go home Rachel. I'm sick of your bad attitude. You really just don't know how to treat people. You act like a spoiled diva all the time and you think you can get away with anything! I can't even deal with you lately! Until further notice," he stumbled on his words while he tried to think of a threatening situation, "you are suspended from glee club."

Rachel choked back tears as she tilted her head back to look him in the eye. In any other situation, Rachel would have retorted that: she was far superior, he was jealous of her and her talent, or even that he was just trying to ruin her life, but she didn't because what he said was true. Rachel knew that she had been melodramatic lately, but she didn't want to come to terms with the fact that it impacted those around her. She turned and darted away so as to hide her tear stained face for long enough to get to the nearest bathroom. In her hurry to escape her teacher, she left a pink notebook with flowers on it in front of her open locker.

Will stood there, flabbergasted and appalled by his actions. He just expelled his star to disguise the fact that he had an inappropriate thought. Thoughts of losing, taunting, teasing and cursing raced through his head while he tried to find the quickest way to get Rachel back to glee. He knew that she couldn't stay away; glee was her life, after all. Staring at her notebook, he had an epiphany. If he could convince Rachel that she had solved her attitude problem, her suspension would be up and she would be reinstated. However, in order to trick her into believing that she was better, he would have to dig a little deeper into her problems.

He decided to open her notebook.

Yes, he knew that he was defiling her privacy and he knew that his actions were intrusive, but the more he knew, the less he had to bs while trying to help Rachel. He opened and immediately noticed that it was not a math notebook with doodles of hearts and arrows that say RB+FH in them as he had expected; it was her journal. He debated as to whether or not he still wanted to go on.

The halls were now deserted and he couldn't help but feel himself sweating. He heard a sound and double took behind him to find the source, but it was only the distant sound of the dumpster shutting. This could not be the _Tell Tale Heart _and risk his own sanity by reading one entry, so he put the notebook back in Rachel's locker, closed the locker, and clasped the lock. But even when he had taken the higher, more noble path, it haunted him. He looked on the floor to find her latest entry laying there before him.

Will was never superstitious, but he needed Rachel back in glee and this seemed like a sign. He took few deep breaths on the walk back to his office, where he planned to read this entry. He locked the door, sat down in his chair, took a sip of coffee and braced himself. Will had expected the worst, but no amount of coffee in the world could have prepared him for this. He read the first two sentences before he threw the paper as far as he could in horror and disgust. It read,

_Dear Diary,_

_It didn't work. Only I could screw up my own suicide…_

A/N: Like it? Don't like it? Have a good joke to tell? Then review! Let me know what you think! Ps, the story is about to get a little more heated. In the upcoming chapters it gets a little angsty and deals with controversial concepts such as mental illness. If it offends you, don't read it (not to sound rude or anything).


	4. Soon It's Gonna Rain

A/N: The following chapter takes place immediately following the last. Thanks so much for reading and please review!

_Dear Diary,_

_It didn't work. Only I could screw up my own suicide…_

Will read and reread the beginning of this entry more times than Sue Sylvester mocked his hair. He couldn't believe that Rachel had ever considered this let alone less than a few days ago. The rain now took on a new meaning in Will's life, one of pathetic fallacy. It started off slow, only slightly heavier than the drizzling mist that had occurred all day. But the longer Will spend in his office, the heavier it got. By the time he decided to leave and find Rachel, the storm crashed, the lightning flashed and the rushing winds were strong enough to blow over any single person. The knowledge that Rachel could be outside in the dangerous weather only made him more determined.

He sprinted out of his office with as much urgency as physically possible. He had to work quickly in order to protect her. _If I were a neurotic teenage girl just expelled from my life's purpose where would I go…_Will thought. He assumed his thoughts were silent, but he passed Mercedes on the run and she must have heard him.

"Mr. Schue, what's up? Glee was supposed to start like 10 minutes ago. We've all been looking for you," Mercedes asked in a rather calm manner. Will couldn't blame her. She didn't know about Rachel's suicide attempt.

"Uh…Mercedes gather everyone in the choir room and just wait until I get there. I have some _business _to take care of," he said anxiously as he continued searching for Rachel.

"Okay, we're all waiting for you," but Will Schuster didn't hear Mercedes' last sentence.

He ran faster than his legs could carry, frantically searching the school for Rachel. She wasn't in any of the restrooms, which he was ashamed to say he checked each and every one of them for _both _genders, nor was she by her locker, in the cafeteria, in the stadium building or even at ballet club practice.

He grew exasperated from his seemingly eternal search. After about 10 more minutes of the search he went back to the choir room to deal with the probably anxious glee club. He walked in rather briskly and immediately saw the petite brunette he had been searching for standing at the piano with a tray of cookies. She was on the verge of tears, but he could tell she was suppressing it very well. _No wonder no one knew that she was trying to kill herself…_he thought with a vapid, dumbfound look on his face.

"I know you suspended me from glee, but I had made my famous sugar cookies for you and was planning got deliver them today. I couldn't bring myself to cause anyone else to do it. I just wanted to apologize for how rude and egocentric I have been lately. Believe me; it will all be over soon. Thank you for your time," and with that, she exited the room with a perky stride in her step that really didn't compliment her situation.

An eerie silence loomed over the room. Will Schuster stood staring at the door Rachel had just exited, and all of the other glee club members sat and stared, perplexed, at their teacher.

"Mr. Schue, I don't know if I should get into it, but why the hell would you suspend Rachel from glee? Do you want us to lose?" A particularly confused Finn asked waiting for some story about team work or how they are only as good as their weakest link and that one star can't help them in the long run. Instead he slowly turned his head towards Finn and sighed.

"It was a mistake, Finn." On that note, he turned around and continued his search for the ever enchanting and aggravating, Rachel Berry. She couldn't have gone too far, she had only left a minute or two before. Even if she ran, she was wearing a skirt and Mary Janes, while Will was wearing jeans and sneakers. He noticed in the choir room that she was missing her backpack, so he ran as quickly as possible back to her locker where she had probably left it. Will darted through hallways, avoiding loose papers on the floor at all costs. The closer he got to Rachel's locker, the thicker the canopy of papers covering the ground grew. Stopping to pick up a particular clump that stuck together like they had been ripped out at the same time, he couldn't help but hear crying coming from the girls restroom nearby. He looked down at the papers he clutched in his sweating hand and read them.

_Dear Diary,_

_Today daddy took me to the doctor and told me that he was concerned, that he noticed not just __**a **__change in me, but __**many **__changes lately. I figured naturally that he meant my abs were getting more sculpted as I added numerous crunch variations to my morning routine. When we got there I saw a man with a nervous twitch that looked like he was constantly cringing in pain. I got really nervous when I saw a little girl popping pills and realized that it was an antidepressant. Daddy told me that he thought I had reached the point of hopelessness and that this was the only way to fix it; with psychopharmacology. _

Will couldn't believe what he was reading. Not only was it strange to see Rachel as having any mental condition, but it was even stranger to know that it scared her. He figured he had to help her, and not just for his selfish purposes of helping the club anymore.

He took one deep breath and cautiously approached the bathroom. The door was slightly ajar, so he stuck one foot in and prepared for the worst.

Inside on the cold, dirty, tile floor laid Rachel Berry: unconscious with blood streaming from her nose, forming a dismal puddle on the floor. Will almost broke down crying at the sight. She looked so lifeless and somber laying there in a puddle of her own blood. Tears streaked across his face, but he couldn't sit there and do nothing, so he removed his phone. 

Crying into the phone he spurted out, "Hello, 911, I think we have a drug overdose."


	5. Here Comes that Rainy Day Feeling Again

A/N: Okay before anyone kills me, an explanation for my mysterious absence. I was writing a new chapter for this story and listening to music when one of my speakers fell on my laptop and it got really screwed up. It broke, and I couldn't retrieve the files on my own, but I thought I could take it to the computer repair store, but they couldn't get them either without completely fixing my computer which was way too much money. Being lazy, I didn't want to try and rewrite everything that I had already put down, but I'm starting to realize my situation and I'm finally back. This is obviously where the story takes on a plot and it's no longer just a series of vignettes. R&R please!

This was it. Will Schuster sat on the floor of the girls' bathroom, desperately clutching the lifeless Rachel Berry to his chest. He could feel a pulse, which was good, but blood dripped from her nose and her hand lay limp on his leg, proving her tragic mistake. As he gripped her figure to himself, he desperately wondered what she had done it for. Part of him wanted to deny any of his doing in this situation, but he realized that avoiding it was futile. There was a strong possibility that he killed Rachel Berry. Not directly of course, but that doesn't make the sting go away. His heart ached for the star she'd never be, the woman she'd never grow into, and the friend she'd never become.

Each minute was agonizing. He wanted more than anything to know she was okay. Or even that they couldn't do anything. But the waiting was tearing him apart. He figured that it might be best to bring her to the front of the school for easier access when the ambulance arrived. He picked her up carefully under her knees and arms and carried her out of the horrid location. _God she's so pale _he thought to himself. It was true; Rachel Berry had the exterior of a ghost with a bad nose-bleed. Beyond that, she was frail. Will was afraid of dropping her in case her bones would shatter at mere contact with the ground. He shrugged it off as a paranoid notion, but worried himself to pieces about it.

By the time he made it to the front door, everyone else in the building had left. They were actually alone. In a meager attempt to take his mind off of the situation at hand, he looked out of a large, arched window. It was like the gateway to heaven. A world where Rachel was fine, and where the sun shone each day. Much to his dismay, when he peered out the window all he saw was a bleak, grey sky filled with clouds from which a light drizzle began to patter down. Any hope he had quickly dissipated and he was left alone.

Once the ambulance arrived he was on the verge of tears. Never before had he lost someone so important to him. They strapped her to a gurney, her cold, dead head swaying back and forth without any support. He sharply inhaled, appalled by the rather gruesome sight. As the ambulance turned on its siren and began speeding off into the distance a stinging commenced in his eye. Not the sting of an eyelash, but rather of a tear. He decided from that moment forth, it would be the last tear he would cry for Rachel Berry.

A/N: Sorry it's so short, but I will be back soon. And by soon, I mean in a day or two. Initially this chapter was going to be longer, but this seemed like an acceptable break, and I need to update my other stories. Toodles!


	6. Stranger to the Rain

The hospital was white and clinical and cold. The gray sky outside was the same color as the walls inside the building. Not a single painting or picture hung on the walls. The gray speckled walls overwhelmed Will as he walked in for the first time. It had been three hours since he called 911. Only family was allowed to see Rachel by then, but Will thought he would go visit just to be kind to the Berry's if nothing else and to explain the reason for the call.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for the ICU," Will explained to the receptionist.

"Down the hallway to your left, go halfway down that hall and make a right. It'll be on your right." Her reply was bland and depressing just like the walls of the hospital.

"Thank you." He was off. He contemplated what he did to get to that point. He recalled the events of the day. From Rachel's expulsion from glee, Will's discovery of her suicide attempt, her mental illness, and finally her overdose. It seemed surreal to Will. He was a Spanish teacher from central Ohio, things like this weren't supposed to happen to him. He finally reached the ICU.

A few sobbing families sat in the lobby, one man chewed his thumb, 2 young boys played on the floor, obviously unaware of their location and consequent situation, and one man leaned against the wall, face in hands. Nowhere did he see Leroy and Hiram Berry. He decided to take a seat next to a sobbing woman.

"What's your story?" The woman had gathered herself enough to ask the question from red puffy eyes and trembling lips.

"One of my students OD'ed. I called 911."

"I'm sorry."

"You?"

"My son was biking without a helmet. He hit a rock on the road, it threw his wheel off and he was hit by a car." She burst into tears again and their conversation ended. Will thought about the rain. It seemed that even though he loved the rain, it still represented pain in his life. A few minutes later, Leroy Berry emerged from the hallway. He wore a blank expression on his face that made it hard to infer the severity of the situation.

"Leroy," Will called out.

"Thank god you got to her! Will, we can't thank you enough." The color rushed back to his face. "The doctor said that she wouldn't have made it too much longer if you hadn't found her."

"Will she be okay?"

"Her stomach had to be pumped." He replied solemnly.

"I'm sorry."

"So how much do you know?"

"I-I don't understand..."

"Of course you do. How much do you know?" Leroy pressed on. "We don't like to admit it, but the Berry's are a secretive family and it's important to us to keep it that way." His gaze bore a hole through Will. Will felt his comfort fade as his defensive walls fell.

"I know about her mental illness."

"And that's it? There has to be more. We know the sign of someone who knows."

"I-I" Will stuttered over his words. His breathing tensed and he suddenly felt faint. "I know that she attempted suicide." He couldn't look Leroy in the eye. He felt the shame that they must feel every day. It's not so much that he was ashamed of teaching a bipolar, suicidal perfectionist, but rather that he hadn't been able to help her sooner. Leroy and Hiram must have felt like failures of parents. To feel helpless in the universe is not to be unable to help, but to arrive to help a little too late. Chasing the ambulance.

"I'm sorry to put this burden on you Mr. Schuster. I hope you understand that you are not permitted to speak with anyone outside of the Berry family about this. I wish this was a choice, but you have to obey our wishes. It's detrimental to Rachel's future and even though she's going through a rough patch, she's destined for greatness."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I understand completely, and if there's anything I can do to help, let me know."

"Thank you Mr. Schuster. You are a kind and well spirited man. Protect Rachel at school, would you? It would help us so much."

"Of course." They stood in silence for a few minutes. "Not to intrude on your family," Will began, "but when will Rachel be released?"

"As of right now, we don't know. Soon hopefully, but we can't be sure. The doctors said at least three days, but that's completely based on the progress they make in her therapy. I think they'll be letting in other visitors starting tomorrow. I'm sure you wanted to see her."

"Thank you Mr. Berry." But he didn't. Will Schuster didn't want to face Rachel Berry after their glee incident, he didn't want to lie to her about having read her diary, and he didn't want to face her knowing that she was fragile and couldn't do anything. She was rice paper on shattered glass, but it was the responsibility of Will Schuster to guide her in the right direction. That's what his job was. He wasn't a teacher of Spanish or music; he taught life


End file.
